Since the invasion of Iraq every small country in the world knows that only being aligned with a major power or having there own nuclear weapons will ensure they will not be invaded . Thats the real politic and we will have to live wth it.

Mr. Lavelle, I agree that the world and international relations are complex. In this multi-polar world, large and powerful nations like Russia, the U.S., China and India would be best served if they cooperate to find solutions to very difficult issues. For example, China more than any other country, can greatly influence North Korea and encourage them to take a more reasonable path. Russia can have the same clout with Iran. The United States has similar pull with Israel, though it is widely suspected (wink, wink) that Israel already has close to 200 nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. And India, through constructive dialogue, could ease tensions with Pakistan. I also agree that it is disingenuous to say that some countries can have nuclear weapons and others cannot. Unless the great powers are willing to eliminate their own nuclear arsenals altogether, they can't righteously dictate that certain smaller nations are not allowed to also have such weapons. India has accepted this reality with Pakistan. The sad fact is, however, that the world becomes a much more dangerous place as nuclear proliferation spreads. Gene H.

Peter, A recent rough estimate (guess?) of the total number of nuclear weapons per country is as follows: Britain 185, China 410, France 464, India 60, Israel 200, North Korea ???, Pakistan 25, Russia 10,000, United States 10,500. I gathered this information from the following web site: http://www.cdi.org/nuclear/database/nukestab.html. Submitted by Gene H.

Yes that's the teaching that has been given. If you don't have Nukes then the US and NATO are on their way to rape your woman and torture your relatives. They will come even faster if you have oil or gas. All supported by their public. We haven't controlled the bullies, so people have wised up, and know they have to look after themselves with Nukes. With limited resources, it is the best option for them.

Peter,you write "It has contempt for anything it has signed regarding weapons development. In fact, it has shown that it can use words of conciliation while planning to up the ante to get what it wants." What you fail to mention, and most people conveniently forget is that America has equally reneged on every deal made with north korea, it's thinking that the regime is about to collapse, so there is no need to fulfill their end of the bargain. Maybe if America fulfills it's end of deals it makes, we will see some progress.

“The alternative is to destroy the North Korean regime. Is the world prepared to do this? I think not. The negligence and complacence of the past is catching up with us.” They can’t afford to. To integrate East and West Germany into a single state after the fall of the USSR it cost over £1 billion dollars to integrate North to South Korea would cost over $1 trillion plus China would not be to welcoming of a potential exodus of Koreans into China. I think the internal apparatus of North Korea is pretty weak they could probably arrange a coup of top army generals who could poison him or wait till he dies and take control. I think we should be more concerned with Pakistan's stockpile with the instability there.

Peter, Here is what may happen based on the past. The leader of North Korea will ratchet it up when he realize that the world is against him. He has launched missiles in every direction except to China, Russia and South Korea. If the United Nations permits the boarding of North Korean ships in transit, that in the North Korean leaders will eye this as an act of war. The North Korean military will be placed on alert and prepared to launch over one thousand missiles into Seoul. The very worst case scenario will be launching one of those missiles that has a Nuclear payload obliterating a city such as Seoul or even sending a missile into Japan. That part of the world go go up in flames in minutes to hours. Fathom the possibilities. It is to be hoped that China and Russia can “talk” to the leader of North Korea and advise him of the alternatives. William Mark Clarke

I must say I am disappointed in this assessment of North Korea. It falls into the narrative so conveniently created for the news consuming public. According to THE "narrative", North Korea is a strange place, with even stranger people, hungry and isolated, with a crazed desire to have nuclear weapons. And in the process, they are flouting all the norms of the international law! As we all aready know very well, using the standard narrative so neatly packaged in the West, can be very misleading. For one, one can be only modestly familiar with the history of negotiations to know for sure that every time North Korea fullfilled one or more of its conditions, the West simply refused to do its end of a bargain. So, we are back where we started. The comedy here is --- North Korea expected such outcome, and is proceeding with the nuclear development. Being named "axes of evil", it had no choice. Being invaded is not fun. Iraq became an abject lesson: if you cannot defend yourself, you will be invaded, occupied and held down for the forseable future. Have you not noticed that China and Russia do not seem to worry about North Korean nukes? They are naturally concerned about proliferation, but not about their own safety. Have you not noticed that in order to make Korean Penninsula nuke-free, US nuclear capabilities will have to be removed from the area. For as long as South Korea enjoys US "nuclear umbrella", Korean Penninsula is not safe for the North. Have you not noticed that the North Korean crisis suits Chinese and Russian geopolitical interests perfectly. It is hard to US to focus on Iran's presumed "nuclear program", for as long as another country is exploding nuclear devices. Now, there will be many attempts in US to downplay this. There will be theories that the "test failed', and that it was not really anything but the "attention getter", etc. Everything will be tried to get North Korea off the international agenda, so that the nuclear histeria can be refocused on Iran. The problem is, North Korea withdrew from NPT, while Iran not only is the signatory, but has an enhanced inspections regime adopted unilaterally. North Korea will, however, make it very hard for US to go back to hector Iran. It will keep on reminding evreryone that it will remain a serious player in the nuclear club. As for the "aid", and such, hopefully we will get some real information about the life in the country, not propaganda. Something about the prepackaged stories just does not pass the smell test.

What we have left with North Korea is the remnants of Stalinist ideology. They act in a sort of irrantional rationality because it does not have a balance of power, has a statist hereditary monarchy, and use extortion to get its way. Why Peter you get show suprised that the US actually influences world policy is obscene and tinges on anti-Americanism. North Korea is a byproduct of Soviet-Russian thought, post Soviet Afghanistan is a byproduct of exporting Stalinist ideology, while the US aided those Afghanis to fight for their own liberation in the form of the Muhajadeen, a quasi-secular group today helping the US. And in stark contrast South Korea, a country following the ideals of America, and that simply is capitalist Democracy. And you wonder why people have sentimental feelings against Stalin and the exported Communism that came from Russia.

North Korea is universally described as a Stalinist state. While this term does not have a precise definition, it implies an oppressive system of government that maintains its authority by “purging” (ie, killing or imprisoning) opposition elements, terrorizing the civilian population through spying and extra-judicial punishment, gross propaganda which distorts all internal and external events to the bias of the leadership, and maintaining a personality cult which insists that a leader can do no wrong. Prolonged imposition of Stalinism produces a country and a people who collectively exhibit symptoms of paranoia, who grow badly out of touch with reality and who eventually end up holding perceptions of just about everything that differ fundamentally with those of the rest of the world, and puts them at odds with everyone else. There was a time not so very long ago when Russia also was a Stalinist state – in fact, it was the original model. Unlike North Korea, it has been able to painfully struggle free from the shackles of Stalinism, and from some of its legacies. But only some. Consistent with classical Stalinist propaganda, Stalin himself is still revered as a great man, not totally removed from the “dear leader” appellation of Kim Jong-il, Stalin’s colossal blunders in the conduct the war are overlooked (“the leader can do no wrong”), his brutalities against his own people are glossed over (Stalinism brooks no criticism) and Stalin’s paranoia of being surrounded by enemies is affirmed by angrily describing as “re-writing of history” any account of Stalin’s own aggression against neighbouring countries. Russia deserves respect and praise for its gains so far in struggling free of Stalinism – that path is not an easy one. And it both deserves, and is being sent, a clear message from its neighbours that this progress needs to continue until it at last emerges completely from Stalinism’s baleful legacy.

Here in the wilds of Indiana, USA. I thae great comfort in the fact that my neighbors are well armed. Nations are to be well armed too.

Hi,Peter I agree with you in this matter that North Korea is going to be a nuclear state,but as you said I dont think that the world is prepared to change the regime is to dangerous,but I would said is that the Chinese have the key to make some pressure to the North Korean government because China supplies 80% of the oil they consume and everything else so if China wants to cool down the situation China is the only one who can do something about it,look North Korea is under multiple sanctions from the UN and nothing happens,everything is going in the opposite direction so the only thing left is that China needs to take some serious steps to control Pyongyang if China doesn't take the steps needed Pyongyang will continue with this kind of behavior,so in other words China has to step up to this guys or the situation really can get out of control and a lot of people is jeopardy so i hope the Chinese will get serious about this situation because the less we need is another war in the world we have enough wars already in play. Best regards from Guatemala Rodrigo

I agree fully with David Owen, Bianca and Count Cash. Peter’s column is for once very disappointing. There is no mention of the fact that North Korea has been deceived by America, they were promised aid that never arrived. There is also no mention of the fact that America has repeatedly called North Korea the ‘Axis of Evil’. There is no mention of the fact that the other country America has called the ‘Axis of Evil’ (Iraq) has been invaded and their people raped by American soldiers. Why do you want North Korea to sit around waiting for the inevitable, the American invasion? Why do you want North Korea to be completely defenceless? You have not mentioned that South Korea is crawling with heavily armed American soldiers, 28 000 of them. Why isn’t this propaganda looking at the Pakistani situation, a country with nukes that could fall into the hands of terrorists. Why haven’t you mentioned that North Korea’s nukes are not in danger of falling into the hands of terrorists? Why doesn’t America inspect Pakistani ships and impose sanctions against Pakistan? Why do they pick on North Korea? And those who say China must control North Korea??? Since when does China go around controlling and colonizing other people? Just because America, Britain and France see nothing wrong in colonizing and raping other people, doesn’t mean that the rest of us will do the same. Russia and China don’t care about North Korea’s nukes because they know the government controls them. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s nukes could easily be controlled by the Taliban.

Mr Lavelle. This forum should be called: America and the inevitable; because when you don't bind over and refuse the capitalist way of life and way of thinking you take tremendeous risks. De Gaulle created his retaliation nuclear force for that purpose. After seeing what happened in the past 60 years, all over the world, that rule has never been so evident. As I explained several times before; unless we have the courage to face the facts and take radical measures, the situation will get worse and worse and mankind's chance of survival will diminish year after year. North-Korea or Iran's nuclear arsenal mean nothing; what count is the already 25000 bombs existing now and knowing that this number will keep on increasing, regardless of what the super-powers will say. The real ennemy and cause of all troubles is the arrogant way of thinking and doing business of the capitalist which, actually control the whole globalisation. The masters of that insane system have no patriotic feelings and don't care about countries' actual borders. They are only concerned about power and money. Look how hard americans try to involve other nations (including Russia) in that useless anti-missiles shield and NATO which since the 1980s has already costed 100s billions $ to the US taxpayers (and other nations' TP). Unless, we take conscience of that reality and take urgent measures (starting in July, in Moscow) we will be getting closer and closer to catastrophy. The BRIC nations missed a first opportunity to call the shots in the London G-20 and put America in front of its responsabilities. (No other country has 700 military installations, all over the World and was and still is the initiator of all WMD that mankind possess. If no positive answer is obtained, then it should be easer for the 95% of humans who are not US citizen to do what America does so well to others: a well planed boycoott. I will organise it myself if necessary and I bet you that the american citizen will quickly react and get ride of the few thousands crooks who have abused them for so long. North-Korea, Iran and those who will follow are just scapegoats, the real problems are those who have thousands of nuclear bombs on stock (this include Russia and first of all the imperialist, arrogant USA and his NATO ' s puppets). Sorry Future Generations That is all, that I can do for you today ! Jean-Claude Meslin

As a youngster because of the way the Soviets were portrayed in the media and through films I had this perception of this group of drone like fanatics ready to invade my country and slit my throat at the drop of a hat. After the end of the soviet regime Russia opened up and on the other side of the iron curtain what we found were people like us, mostly decent family minded human beings who just wanted a better life for themselves and their families. This same vilification process is happening with North Korea. This is a scared poor nation, millions of its people are starving, and more sanctions could lead to an implosion and humanitarian catastrophes. I believe there is an internal power struggle going on, for now we should take a step back and leave ourselves an option to negotiate with any new leadership that may emerge. I don’t believe the North Koreans would try to launch a nuclear strike after all they have exercised military restraint since the end of the Korean War. The real danger is that this country collapses and rouge elements may decide to sell nuclear weapons to terrorist groups. China/Russia’s more measured approach is the correct one.

Just because you hate the US, you should still use common sense in your opinion of North Korea. If North Korea and Kim Jung Il are so rational, and good for the people of N. Korea, I dare you to move to that country. Look at how much growth and prosperity has occured in South Korea, they are a really smart people, peaceful democracy, with a huge opportunity for further prosperity. North Korea (geographically the same people) have been driven into there current situation by a failed ex-Soviet era regime. Their model doesn't work, but everyone on this board seems to be blindly be supportive of N. Korea, b/c they don't like the U.S.

It’s been speculated that Israel is developing genetic weapons and I would probably presume the US and other major countries. @Billy Bob Peter is an American himself how does he hate America? I think the point of his article is that Washington’s strong arm approach in Iraq won’t work against North Korea. That the North Korean regime is using its nuclear arsenal to gather attention to pressure Washington into direct negotiations so it can negotiate aid for self preservation. That it is not going to give up it’s nuclear arsenal which is it’s only bargaining chip. He didn’t say the regime was good or it’s economic and political model.

It you can't make distinctions between Israel and North Korea you need to get out a little more, maybe do some reading.

Exactly, there is a huge difference btwn North Korea and Israel. Israel is illegally occupying and killing Palestinains and Lebanese civilians at will and in the name of God. North Korea does not occupy or kill other people. That is the major difference.